Mitigating time-dependent crack growth in Ni-base superalloy components

Advanced Ni-based gas turbine disks are expected to operate at higher service temperatures in aggressive environments for longer time durations. Exposures of Ni-base alloys to these aggressive environments can lead to cycle-dependent and time-dependent crack growth in superalloy components for advanced turbopropulsion systems. In this article, the effects of tertiary gamma' on the crack-tip stress relaxation process, oxide fracture and time-dependent crack growth kinetics are treated in a micromechanical model which is then incorporated into the DARWIN (R) probabilistic life-prediction code. Using the enhanced risk analysis tool and material constants calibrated to powder-metallurgy (PM) disk alloy ME3, the effects of grain size and tertiary gamma' size on combined time-dependent and cycle-dependent crack growth in a PM Ni-alloy disk is demonstrated for a generic rotor design and a realistic mission profile using DARWIN. The results of this investigation are utilized to assess the effects of controlling grain size and gamma' size on the risk of disk fracture and to identify possible means for mitigating time-dependent crack growth (TDCG) in hot-section components. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.